Grand finale

Strawberry shortcake was our last creation. As you can see, I have not yet mastered the decorating comb and my whipped cream began to fall as I was piping my rosettes, but all in all an admirable attempt. My masking skills are improving as my whipped cream wasn't filled with crumbs this time. I'll be getting a lot more practice in January, when I start The Art of Cakes, my second course! And yes, these are tuxedo strawberries!:

Just peachy

It was fruit flan night and although it's not my favourite, it's something that I probably wouldn't attempt at home so I'm glad I had a chance to make it. It involves sponge cake, sweet dough and pastry cream (vanilla pudding). A lot of work - not to mention the crust is brushed with melted chocolate and it needs to be decorated and glazed.

Rolled, whipped & piped

I was obsessed with photographing my Swiss Rolls when I got home from class last night. I'm not a huge fan of eating something with this much whipped cream on it, but it makes for a lovely photo!


I love how it looks from this angle, with the raspberry jam & whipped cream all lined up and rolled together...


There were quite a few steps in the process (baking the sponge sheets, spreading with raspberry jam & whipped cream, rolling, masking and decorating) but each was fairly simple so it was fun.

The cherry on top

My favourites - maraschino cherries - are back! We had our cake debut tonight with our very first Black Forest cake. You can't tell (I don't think?) but my cake was actually a mess compared to some of the other creations in class - crumbs mixed in with my icing...masking is hard! I am definitely not a natural. Thankfully, whipped cream rosettes and chocolate shavings cover up a lot.


I love how well the cherries photograph - so glossy and perfect.


I couldn't resist slicing it in half to check out the layers.


This made it all the way home on a 40-minute streetcar ride, with barely a smudge.

Cookies just like from a bakery!

We practiced our piping skills again (in preparation for our first cake this week) with these Piped Spritz cookies. I love maraschino cherries so was all over this. We also learned how to create a mini piping bag from a piece of parchment paper which was used to drizzle warm chocolate over our cookies.


It's weird to make something that you would have otherwise bought - these remind me of cookies I would have seen in bakeries growing up. They were a lot easier to make than I thought.


These are filled with raspberry jam...mmm...